Events

First Light Silent Film Series: "Scandinavian Cinema"

Come celebrate the summer with “First Light,” a richly curated selection of classics of the international silent cinema, many featuring live musical accompaniment by students of Jean-François Zygel's piano improvisation class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Too few are aware that the silent cinema was a period of almost incomparable artistic creativity; the lack of sound, rather than a hindrance, was actually a kind of inspiration for the era’s finest filmmakers, who found ingenious ways to expand the visual expressiveness of their works. Not surprisingly, the great silent filmmakers—from Méliès to Griffith, from Eisenstein to Buster Keaton—continue to influence and inform contemporary artists across the disciplines.

Scandinavian Cinema: "The Outlaw and his Wife" (1918, Victor Sjöström)

Sought after by the police, an escaped criminal and his young wife seek refuge in the desolate and treacherous mountains of Iceland. Taking advantage of their magnificent landscapes, Scandinavian filmmakers developed a cinema that depended on the interaction of natural settings and human drama.

Followed by a conversation with Professor Richard Peña, Director Emeritus, New York Film Festival and Sarah Leperchey, professor of Cinema, University of Paris 1.

With live piano accompaniment by Thomas Lavoine from the improvisation class of Jean-François Zygel at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.